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Northeastern Laptop Recommendations

ResNet provides warranty and out-of-warranty support on campus for all Apple and Dell computers. We only provide support for other brands on a case-by-case basis and therefore recommend all students to purchase either an Apple or a Dell. Additionally, each college has varying requirements for computer performance. For tailored recommendations based on your major, please click the button below corresponding to the college you will be entering:

ITS strongly recommends you purchase an Dell Complete Care or AppleCare+ warranty to protect your computer. Dell Complete Care covers accidental damage and AppleCare+ mostly covers accidental damage but has a deductible. You can read more about Dell’s accidental damage coverage here or Apple’s warranties here. Also, all Northeastern pre-configured models on this page come with Complete Care or AppleCare+. However, default warranties from Apple or Dell for customized laptops may not include the accidental damage protection. All Apple and Dell warranties can be serviced on campus by ResNet.

You may also want to consider purchasing personal property protection to insure your computer(s), mobile device and other belongings, as it covers against loss due to accidental damage (liquid spills, cracked screens) and theft, which are not covered under a manufacturer warranty. Details are available on the Housing & Residential Life website.

Additionally, ResNet and ITS strongly recommend all students have a complete backup of their data online or on an external drive. Information on Google Drive and OneDrive resources provided free to students are available here and here. In case anything happens to your laptop and you can’t access your data, ResNet offers data recovery options. However, our data recovery options are limited for all new laptops due to how new solid state drives work.

College of Arts, Media, and Design

Design, Photography and other Media Art majors:

Recommended Specs:

Operating System

Screen Size

RAM

Storage

MacOS

13″ or 15″ (15″ for Video Art)

8GB Minimum

512gb SSD Minimum

Architecture:

Recommended Configuration:

Recommended Specs:

Screen Size

Processor

RAM

Storage

15″

Intel i7 Processor

16GB DDR4

512gb SSD

Animation and Game Design majors:

Recommended Specs:

Operating System

Processor

RAM

Storage

Graphics

Windows 10

Quad-core Intel i7

16GB

1TB, SSD recommended

Nvidia GTX 1060 or better, VR Ready

Animation alternative:

While CAMD does recommend a PC for Game Design and Animation students, Animation students can, if preferred buy a Mac instead if it meets the specs below:

College of Engineering

Please note:

Access to some College of Engineering software requires use the COE Virtual Lab environment. ResNet recommends using an ethernet adapter for this to maximize network speed and stability. These can be purchased as an add-on to your computer, or from Amazon, but must be registered for use in the dorms (see here). For more on COE-specific purchase recommendations, please see here.